Alpha-clustering effects in heavy nuclei

Abstract

The study of cluster structures in light nuclei is extending to the heavy nuclei in these years. As for the stable N = Z nuclei, from the lighter 8Be, 12C nuclei to the heavier 20Ne and even the 40Ca and 44Ti medium nuclei, the α cluster structures have been well studied and confirmed. In heavy nuclei, due to the dominated mean field, the existence of α cluster structure is not clear as light nuclei but some clues were found for indicating the core+α cluster structure in some nuclei, in particular, the 208Pb+α structure in 212Po. We review some recent progress about the theoretical and experimental explorations of the α-clustering effects in heavy nuclei. We also discuss the possible α cluster structure of heavy nuclei from the view of α decay.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are honoured in dedicating this review paper to the celebration of Professor Akito Arima’s 88th birthday. The authors are grateful for the discussions with Prof. Hisashi Horiuchi, Prof. Akihiro Tohsaki, Prof. Gerd Röpke, Prof. Peter Schuck, Prof. Masaaki Kimura, Prof. Yasuro Funaki, Prof. Chang Xu, and Prof. Taiichi Yamada. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11535004, 11375086, 11120101005, 11175085, 11235001, and 11761161001), the National Major State Basic Research and Development of China, Grant Nos. 2016YFE0129300 and 2018YFA0404403, the Science and Technology Development Fund of Macau under grant No. 008/2017/AFJ, and JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 17K1426207.